

What is a Prologue?



When Not to Prologue


When to Prologue


Final Tip




Adam Heine said...

* A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. This prologue shows strange creatures, called The Others, killing a group of rangers on the borderlands. It establishes that (1) yes, this is fantasy (even though there’s no further proof of magic until the very end) and (2) something terrible is about to sweep in on good guys and bad guys alike unless something is done about it (while the rest of the plot is mostly concerned with good guys vs. bad guys).

* Crystal Rain, by Tobias Buckell. Like the prologue in Memory of Earth, it establishes tension (somebody’s after the protagonist, though he doesn’t know it) and genre (there’s a spaceship, though there’s few other hints of sci-fi until near the end of the story).

BAD EXAMPLES (I could only think of movie examples, probably because I have a bad memory for bad books):
* Star Wars. As much as the scrolling text is a tradition of the saga, it’s boring (and poorly written) exposition.

* Eragon (the movie) begins with a voiceover explaining the countries, the history, and many of the major characters for like 5 minutes before finally letting us experience the story for ourselves. The voiceover is a prologue, and not a good one.

MattyDub said...

I was going to mention Game of Thrones. Does that count as a Prologue? I don't have it here with me, so I don't know if it's titled "Prologue" or if it has the character name as the title like the other chapters.